Subscribe

Post navigation

Why Marketing Innovation Fails

Why does marketing innovation fail? With all the changes in the content and consumer landscape brought on by digital, social and mobile technology, you would think that innovation in marketing is a foregone conclusion.

Marketing innovation fails at most companies simply because it isn’t funded as part of a formal approach to testing new ideas. Innovation happens when marketing leaders commit to it.

And unfortunately, in those places where it is funded, too few are tracking the effectiveness.

Those are the findings of a recent Forrester report, covered byMediaPost. The report was based on in-depth interviews with 45 marketing executives, almost half from companies with more than $1 billion in revenue.

The article states that only 11% of marketers budget and plan for investments in innovation and experimentation. And only 27% of those who do have budget set aside for innovation actually track the impact of those investments.

Only 38% of marketing leaders say they look inside and outside the company for new ideas.

How about developing new talent and the marketing leaders of the future? Only 22% actively monitor and promote internal talent and just 12% have a dedicated program to develop internal marketing talent.

My takeaways from the report:

ALL marketing executives should be looking inside and outside the company for new ideas to help reach, engage and convert new customers.

The Marketing planning process should include a full review of all investments made and the business results that each achieved.

So if you want marketing innovation, you simply have to fund it and then you have to track it!

The report pointed to Coca-Cola’s approach as the example to follow. They set aside 70% of the marketing and advertising budget for “now,” 20% for “new” and 10% for “next generation” marketing programs. While that formula may not work for every company, it seems like a good place to start the discussion.